Knight Frank has managed a healthy upswing in transacted space and climbed to the top of the Leeds office disposals league table in a market otherwise savaged by Covid-19 and supply shortages.
The latest figures come on the back of two bumper years for the city in which the Wellington Place scheme hosted massive individual deals, each well beyond the 100,000 sq ft mark. This time around, the biggest deals are just over 30,000 sq ft and agents freely admit that times are tough.
This makes Knight Frank’s achievement in letting an extra 65,000 sq ft this year all the more impressive. It acted as sole agent on the freehold sale of the 31,388 sq ft Cloth Hall Court to the University of Leeds, the city’s largest deal.
Knight Frank also acted jointly with Cushman & Wakefield on the largest letting, 31,175 sq ft to Sky at 26 Whitehall Road (pictured), and on the only other 30,000+ sq ft letting, in which BJSS took space at 1 Whitehall Quay.
The other notable success story was Cushman & Wakefield, which came from outside last year’s top 10 to finish third this time from just eight deals.
However, the likes of JLL and Savills saw huge drops in transacted space. The combined 45% decline in take-up figures is not massively out of kilter with other northern cities – Manchester recently registered 40% – but the road to recovery currently feels very long.
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